15 killed in 53 Chicago shootings over holiday weekend

The number of Fourth of July weekend shooting incidents is up from last year, but Chicago is still on pace to end the year with fewer homicides

In this July 6, 2014 photo, a man is wheeled on a stretcher after being shot in the leg on Chicago's South Side. More than 50 people were shot, including multiple deaths, during the long Fourth of July weekend. (AP Photo/Sun-Times Media, Alex Wroblewski)

Update:

CHICAGO — Chicago's Fourth of July weekend death toll has climbed to 15 with the death of a man who was shot just before midnight Sunday.

Allen was one of more than 50 people shot over the long holiday weekend. The killings continued Monday with the slayings of three people — the first two early Monday and the third on Monday night on Chicago's South Side.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the latest victim was a 19-year-old woman who was shot in the back by a gunman who rode up on a bicycle and opened fire.

Original story:

By Don Babwin
The Associated Press

CHICAGO — Extra police officers on Chicago's streets were not enough to quell a long weekend of violence that ended with 14 people shot to death and dozens more injured.

During a Monday news conference, just hours after two more people were shot to death earlier in the day, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said his department's best efforts could not prevent the bloodshed that spiked dramatically on Sunday. Chicago's total of 53 shooting incidents for the holiday weekend easily eclipsed Detroit and New York combined, which had a total of 46 shooting incidents, 10 of which were fatal.

"Going into the holiday weekend we had a plan, including putting hundreds more officers on the streets and what were the results?" McCarthy asked. "The results were a lot of shootings, a lot of murders, unfortunately."

The shootings over the Fourth of July holiday weekend included eight incidents that involved police, according to McCarthy. In five of those instances, officers shot at suspects. Two people — both 16 — were killed in those shootouts. McCarthy said that based on preliminary investigations, all of the officer-involved shootings appear to have been justified, including one in which officers fired after a suspect who tried to run them over with his car.

Even with the weekend shootings, Chicago police are on pace with last year for officer-involved shootings, with 33 so far in 2014, compared with 35 at the same time last year, according to McCarthy.

The Associated Press took its tally of shooting deaths for the holiday weekend from the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, from Thursday through Sunday. The number of shooting incidents came from Chicagopolice and was for Thursday evening through Sunday. The two deaths early Monday morning were not included in the weekend totals.

McCarthy, who came to the nation's third-largest city from New York, used the opportunity to again highlight the number of guns that are on Chicago's streets. While Chicago has tough gun sales and possession ordinances, McCarthy maintains that Illinois needs stiffer penalties for people who violate gun laws.

McCarthy said his officers are seeing more suspects who are reluctant to throw down their guns when confronted by police because they're more concerned with harsh treatment from their gangs if they lose their weapons than the legal system if they are arrested with them.

"Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in the state of Illinois for sentencing purposes," McCarthy said, noting that gangs, on the other hand, may severely beat a member who loses a gun.

The latest spate of shootings also indicates how dangerous the streets can be, particularly in the summer when the warm weather puts more people on the streets. McCarthy noted that nearly half of the 53 shooting incidents over the holiday weekend happened on Sunday, when temperatures climbed into the upper 80s.

Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Still, the superintendent stressed that even with the weekend deaths, Chicago has had fewer homicides as of July 6 (185) than it did for the same period last year (196). At the same time, he said, the city has had 46 more shooting incidents than last year.

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Frank StaplesWednesday, July 09, 2014 1:58:15 PMAnd the idiotic leftist liberals want the law abiding to give up their guns, yeah, right!!

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